So for this day – I actually wrote a whole blog on my phone and when I exited out of it, it didn’t get saved!!!
You know when you’re so angry you’re like “F*** this!!” and leave it. Well that’s what I’ve done with Day 18.
I will however do a quick re-cap of my first day in Memphis…
That whole Saturday it was pretty much a driving day with a stop off at Little Rock Nine school.
If you’d never heard of ‘Little Rock Nine’ like I hadn’t, it’s a reference to a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957 by a lady called Daisy Bates.
The high school was originally an all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas but when these nine students came along, it became the Little Rock Crisis because of their skin color.
In 1896 there was a law passed by the U.S. Supreme Court which stated that there could be schools just for white children and schools just for black children. However, the schools for black children were not as good and people thought this was unfair.
When the Little Rock Nine turned up to school on the first day (Thanks to Daisy – an American civil rights activist) they got yelled at by other white students and blocked from entering the school by soldiers that the Arkansas governor Orval Faubus hired.
The students obviously hated it and returned home that day in tears.
This is when President Dwight Eisenhower stepped in. He sent the US Army to the school to protect the colored students so they could finally go to school and learn like everyone else.
They did get to study there eventually, but not without being bullied and called names by all the other students. Only 8 of the 9 students made it till the end of the year which I find very brave. I don’t think I could have done it.
However, after that first year the Governor closed all the public high schools in Little Rock as he thought it was better to have no schools at all than have mixed race schools in his town. Many people blamed the Little Rock Nine for this and the racism got even worse.
Obviously that was a very significant moment in history and even though things aren’t perfect today, we have come a long way.
Not all is bad for the Little Rock Nine though, one of the students ended up working for President Jimmy Carter as Assistant Secretary of Labor, Melba Beals became a reporter for NBC news, Thelma earned her master’s degree in Guidance and Counseling and Jefferson Thomas became an accountant for the United States Department of Defense.
Once we’d spent a few hours at the Little Rock Center we headed to Memphis to our hotel.
When I got off the bus, I grabbed my bags from under the coach and also my box of alcohol I’d bought in Dallas.
However, as soon as I went to go inside the hotel, the box came apart from underneath and all the bottles smashed to the ground *Sigh* not a good start to Memphis.
As I’m writing this entry nearly a year later (took me awhile to get over this post being deleted obviously) I can’t really remember quite what I did that night.
I know we all went out to dinner at this place called Kooky Canuck and it was terrible. I think Contiki usually takes their tour there when they’re in Memphis but it was really horrible. I think we went there because they do a ‘Big Burger Challenge’ where you can sign up to eat a massive burger and fries in a certain amount of time.
They did however have really big alcoholic beverages I enjoyed.
After dinner, we walked to Beale Street which is known in Memphis as the heart of all Blues music and entertainment. It’s made up of three blocks of nightclubs, restaurants and shops in the heart of downtown Memphis.It’s one of the coolest places to go if you’re ever in Memphis.
We all went to one club but we were literally the only people there (Maybe it was too early)
Myself and another girl Marisa ended up leaving the group to go and explore some other clubs as everyone wanted to stay
I remember we had such a fun night. We were taking Jello Shots and having drinks everywhere we went.
I think I went to sleep really late now that I think of it because I only had a few hours sleep until I had to wake up!
xx
Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally’s wife Nellie were also in the car with them but they weren’t hurt. It happened as Nellie (the First Lady of Texas) turned to President Kennedy, who was sitting behind her, and commented, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you,” which President Kennedy acknowledged by replying “No, you certainly can’t.” Those were the last words ever spoken by John F. Kennedy.
From Houston Street, the presidential limousine made the planned left turn onto Elm Street, allowing it access to the Stemmons Freeway exit. As it turned on Elm, the motorcade passed the Texas School Book Depository. Shots were fired at President Kennedy as they continued down Elm Street. About 80% of the witnesses recalled hearing three shots.
A minority of the witnesses recognized the first gunshot they heard as weapon fire, but there was hardly any reaction to the first shot from a majority of the people in the crowd or those riding in the motorcade.
Dallas is known for their Dallas Coy-boys and Cheerleaders. Not to mention they apparently have some of the ‘Best-looking woman in the states’ which I guess the boys on the trip were soon to find out.
You know the store 7-Eleven? Well that was started in Dallas as an ice-selling operation. (So basically they just sold ice) until 1927 when they started selling milk and eggs to customers. Eventually they sold gasoline in 1928 and then the ‘slurpee’ drinks in in 1965 along with many other goods as time went on.
There were around 5 bars spread around the club and all the girls who were either dancing or working the bar were so pretty!
ThePassportPrincess 